Why anti-Catholicism remains alive and well

Among the many troubling offshoots of the clergy sex abuse scandal, the erosion of confidence in the leaders of the Church is easily one of the worst.

Tell a mixed audience of Catholics that not all bishops are responsible for the mess and that anti-Catholicism had something to do with the way the scandal was presented and perceived — you’re likely to get your head handed to you for your trouble.

But, as Philip Jenkins shows in his important book "The New Anti-Catholicism" (Oxford University Press, $27), these things happen to be facts. People who think the abuse scandal was exclusively about pedophile priests and cynical bishops trying to shield them from punishment need to hear what Jenkins says.

The book is about many things besides the scandal. Taken as a whole, it is a serious look at why anti-Catholicism is the "last acceptable prejudice" in the United States — why opinion leaders of every sort casually slam the Catholic Church when they wouldn’t dream of slamming any other church or institution.

Jenkins, a professor of history and religious studies at Pennsylvania State University, is no Catholic apologist. A former Catholic who parted ways with the Church years back, he is now an Episcopalian.

He also is a prolific author whose topics range from the explosive growth of Christianity in the Southern Hemisphere ("The Next Christendom," Oxford University Press, $28) to an examination of clergy sex abuse that debunks commonly held myths ("Pedophiles and Priests," Oxford University Press, $18).

HARD JABS FROM THE LEFT
Jenkins reports that, unlike the old-style, mainly Protestant anti-Catholicism it has largely but not entirely replaced, the "new" anti-Catholicism exists mainly on "the left/liberal side of the spectrum, especially among feminists and gay activists." These people oppose the Church on touchy issues where gender and politics intersect, like abortion and same-sex marriage.

The results of this clash are visible today everywhere from movies to art exhibitions in which Catholic themes are treated with contempt.

"For many people in the United States — particularly for opinion-makers in the mass media and in the academic world — Catholicism neither needs nor deserves the kind of protections that apply to other religious traditions," Jenkins concludes.

"In this assessment, the Church is a haven of reaction, especially on matters of gender and sexuality, and it deserves little sympathy when it is attacked because, frankly, it is so dependably on the wrong side."

No more than any other sane person does Jenkins doubt that some priests were guilty of horrible crimes and some bishops botched the handling of the problem in mind-boggling ways. These were the central causes of this historic disaster for the Church.

Even though there was no solid basis in fact to support the view, around the mid-1980s, the media concluded that sex abuse was distinctively a problem of Catholic priests. This resulted in terrible distortions in coverage:

• The number of offenders often was grossly exaggerated. In reality, Jenkins suggests, probably no more than 2 percent to 3 percent of all priests were involved with minors.

• Abusive priests routinely were described as "pedophiles" — molesters of young children — even though a careful study of priests in the Chicago archdiocese found, for example, that just one out of more than 2,200 was a pedophile.

• Sex abuse by clergy of other denominations was treated as an isolated, individual phenomenon, but in the case of Catholic priests it was presented as a product of the doctrines and structures of the Church.

• Even though policies implemented by most bishops starting in 1993 meant that "most dioceses have in recent years done a respectable job" of handling the abuse problem, this progress was largely ignored.

"In modern American history, no mainstream denomination has ever been treated so consistently, so publicly, with such venom," Jenkins says.

Catholics joined in the Catholic-bashing. Jenkins mentions columnists Maureen Dowd and Anna Quindlen, psychotherapist Richard Sipe and writers Garry Wills, James Carroll and Eugene Kennedy. The list could be extended.

But can Catholics really be anti-Catholic? Conventional wisdom treats the very idea as absurd. If a Catholic — at any rate, a prominent Catholic on the left — criticizes the Church, he or she automatically gets respect from the media.

Jenkins thinks that’s a mistake. If somebody uses "harsh, sweeping, and vindictive" rhetoric to grind axes against the Church, that is anti-Catholic by definition, he holds.

RIGHT THINKING?
Manifesting the same blind spot about conservative Catholic opinion that secular writers commonly suffer from, Jenkins seems unaware that Catholic anti-Catholicism also exists on the Catholic right.

But it does. Catholics on both ends of the spectrum now join in decrying "the bishops," with no distinctions made.

It is as if African-Americans or Jews, buying into anti-black or anti-Semitic stereotypes, had turned on the authority structures of their own communities and were bent on destroying them.

Bad as it was, the anti-Catholicism of the past came from outside the Church. And being under siege may even have strengthened the Catholic community in some ways.

Today, attacks from the outside are still taking place. But the Church also finds itself under attack from within. "We have met the enemy, and he is us," the cartoon character Pogo announced. Maybe so — but this new anti-Catholicism is no laughing matter.— Shaw (rshaw@osv.com) is Our Sunday Visitor’s Washington correspondent

. . . and it’s not going away soon
Is there a solution to anti-Catholicism in the United States? In "The New Anti-Catholicism," Philip Jenkins says the problem is so deeply rooted in American culture that it may be impossible to eradicate "in a decade or a lifetime."

"The greatest single achievement might be to acknowledge its existence and to treat it as a form of prejudice quite as pernicious as any other," Jenkins says.

In the news media especially, he adds, "it would be wonderful if writers dealing with Catholic themes would examine their work just long enough to see if they were recycling ancient stereotypes, in much the same way they should if writing about Jews, blacks, or other once-despised groups."

Good idea. But how to turn that from pious hope into concrete reality is not so clear. » R.S.

55 % of Catholics in NJ support Gay Marriage according to this poll.

NJ Poll finds majority for gay marriage
State survey's results questioned by critics

Tuesday, July 29, 2003
BY KATHY BARRETT CARTER Star-Ledger Staff

A majority of New Jerseyans support allowing gay couples to marry, according to a Zogby International Poll commissioned by advocates for legalizing same-sex unions.

In the poll, released yesterday, nearly 55 percent of likely voters agreed that gay couples should be able to marry, while 41 percent disagreed. The poll also found that 57 percent of Catholics supported gay marriage, even as the Vatican announced it plans to issue new instructions to bishops and Catholic politicians to oppose extending marriage to gay and lesbian couples.

Gay rights advocates said the poll shows there is broad public support for same-sex marriage. But opponents of gay marriage questioned the poll's methodology, noting the results are dramatically different from national polls showing most people oppose gay marriage.

New Jersey is shaping up as a major battleground in the fight over gay marriage. Seven gay couples have filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a state law limiting marriage to heterosexuals. In addition, a bill pending in the Legislature would give gay couples and unmarried heterosexual couples the right to register as domestic partners and receive many of the same rights and privileges enjoyed by married couples.

Two Canadian provinces have legalized homosexual marriage. Earlier this year, Germany's high court upheld a same-sex marriage law.

"Like all other parents, we want to dance at our children's weddings, including those of our lesbian and gay children," said Clarice Zieja, president of the Bergen County chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, the state group that commissioned the poll. "It's really wonderful to know that the people of New Jersey agree."

The poll results conflict with other polls, including a national poll released last week by the Pew Research Center showing 53 percent oppose gay marriage.

John Tomicki, executive director of the League of American Families, a group that opposes same-sex marriage, charged that the Zogby poll "is meant to try to stampede the public and legislators with biased questions and statistics. It directly conflicts with the Pew poll because the questions were prepared by PFLAG and those who have a gay and lesbian marriage agenda."

Steven Goldstein, who is leading the campaign for gay marriage and the domestic partner bill on behalf of Lambda, a nonprofit legal advocacy group for gays, said the questions were prepared by Zogby with help from PFLAG. John Zogby, president and CEO of Zogby International, said the poll clearly shows support for gay marriage.

"No matter how the question is worded, the answers remain the same. More than half of likely voters support allowing gay couples to marry," Zogby said. "And a majority believe it would be better if the state stopped fighting the marriage lawsuit and used the resources to focus on problems like the economy."

Patrick Murray, associate director of The Star Ledger/ Eagleton-Rutgers poll, said "The numbers aren't like anything I've seen in any other poll about this issue, but it depends on how you ask the questions and where you ask the questions."

"I would find it very interesting if New Jersey is this far ahead of the nation in terms of progressive thought," he said. "New Jersey is always a few points ahead of the nation in opposition to the death penalty or support for gay rights in general, but not 180 degrees apart from the rest of the nation."

Other numbers reflect a dramatic change from earlier polls.

When New Jerseyans were asked whether they personally know someone who is gay, lesbian or bisexual, 77 percent said yes and 23 percent said no. Four years ago, 57 percent responded yes in a similar Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers poll.

According to the Zogby poll, gay marriage has support across the state, and the most in South Jersey, where 60 percent support it and 35 percent oppose. Whites favor same-sex marriage 56 percent to 40 percent. Nearly seven out of 10 Jews and Hispanics questioned said they favor gay marriage. A majority of Republicans, Protestants, African-Americans and Asian- Americans opposed gay marriage.

Gay rights leaders said while the poll won't affect the pending lawsuit, they believe it will help convince lawmakers to pass the domestic partnership bill.

"We're delighted. The poll reflects our experience with our friends and neighbors, and we hope it improves the chances of passage of the domestic partnership bill," said Michael Blake, president of the New Jersey chapter of the Stonewall Democrats. "I think this will help reassure people that there is strong support for it."

Pollsters interviewed 803 "likely voters" by telephone from July 15-19. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points. The margin of error is greater for subsets such as race, religion, and political party.

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